Pope Francis will visit Fatima in Portugal to implore peace for Ukraine, and the entire world.
Pope Francis will return to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in early August during his Apostolic Journey to Portugal in order to pray for an end to the war at the heart of Europe, at the site of apparitions closely linked to Russia and the Popes of the 20th century.
Vatican News reports that this will be his second visit to the Shrine of his pontificate. In Fatima, three shepherd children received a message in May 1917 from the Blessed Virgin Mary about the future of humanity.
The short visit to Fatima, will take place on Saturday, the 5th of August, via helicopter, in addition to his visit to Lisbon for World Youth Day.
In May 2017, Pope Francis had 1st traveled to the renowned Marian shrine to canonize St. Francisco and St. Jacinta Marto, the two young visionaries, on the centenary of the apparitions.
Just over a month after the outbreak of war in Ukraine: Pope Francis made the Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica on 25 March 2022.
The apparition at Fatima had specifically requested the Consecration of Russia in its message to the shepherd children.
During the consecration, the Pope prayed, “We have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young… Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war… Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.”
Pope Pius XII, on the 31st October 1942, consecrated "the peoples separated by error or discord" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In May 1967, Paul VI became the first Pope to make a pilgrimage to Fatima, when he visited Portugal, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the apparitions.
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